Recently in Interviews Category

Hanaa Rifaey doesn't sleep much. I'll let her explain why. But the next time you find yourself pissed at another policy done wrong, know that Hanaa is on it. And you can be, too. Even if it's a small step, it'll add up.

Here's Hanaa...

Photo of Diane DiMassa by Love Alban

Photo of Cristy C. Road by Amos Mac

Diane DiMassa and Cristy C. Road are contributors of the new anthology, Live Through This. Edited by Sabrina Chapadjiev, Live Through This is a collection of original stories, essays, artwork and photography that explore the use of art to survive many of life's lows, traumas and struggles. Both illustrated and contributed real-life personal pieces to the anthology.

Diane DiMassa is best known as the creator of the comic heroine Hothead Paisan, Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist. She recently illustrated a graphic novel written by Daphne Gottlieb called Jokes and the Unconscious, and regularly contributes to anthologies.

Cristy C. Road's works and publications include the punk rock zine, Greenzine; illustrated storybook, Indestructable; a series of illustrated novels based on filmmaker Esther Bell's upcoming film, Flaming Heterosexual Female; and is currently working on Bad Habits, an illustrated love story.

Here are Diane and Cristy...

Judy Norsigian is co-founder of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective and co-author of the ground breaking Our Bodies, Ourselves published in 1970. Since its publication, women's groups around the world have developed cultural adaptations of, or other publications inspired by, Our Bodies, Ourselves. Most recently, women's groups in Albania, Russia, South Korea, and Tibet have produced new publications in book and other formats. Judy is also the co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause and most recently, Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth. Check out the Our Bodies, Ourselves blog when you can: http://ourbodiesourblog.org/

Judy speaks and writes frequently on a wide range of women's health concerns, including abortion and contraception, sexually transmitted infections, genetics and reproductive technologies, tobacco and women, women and health care reform, and midwifery advocacy.

Here's Judy...

From a recent performance at The Whitney Biennial. Photo by Eduardo Aparicio.

Coco Fusco is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and writer. She is the author of English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas, and editor of Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, and Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self (with Brian Wallis). Her work on military interrogation was selected for the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

"In the guise of a CIA manual, Coco Fusco's provocative A Field Guide for Female Interrogators offers an unflinching look at women's role in the military and at America's use of torture in the War on Terror"-- (from the book's back cover copy).

Here's Coco...

Martha Ma is a food and media educator and producer, community chef and health counselor. She is the host and producer of "The Tasty Life," a bi-weekly television show on Manhattan Public Access channel 57, and the editor of the e-newsletter, "Eater's Digest."

Martha is also executive producer of the Food for Thought Film Festival. If you're in the NYC area this weekend, check out the last weekend of the festival at Cooper Union's Wollman Auditorium, 51 Astor Place at Third Ave. Feature films include King Corn, Black Gold, and Life and Debt. Shorts include The Meatrix I, II and II 1/2 and The True Cost of Food.

Here's Martha...

Sara Fajardo is a staff photographer at the Orlando Sentinel. Her photojournalism journey has taken her to many places, from local places in the States to covering the rise and fall of president Alberto Fujimori in Peru. You can see some of her photos at her website: http://sarafajardo.com/.

She's also the author of a children's nonfiction book, Enrique's Day: From Dawn to Dusk in a Peruvian City.

Here's Sara...

Allison Kilkenny describes herself as "a political humorist, a fancy way of saying writer, who makes shitty world news funny." She is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, The Beast, Alternet.org's Wiretap Magazine, and Timothy McSweeney's. Her work has appeared on The Nation and SIRIUS radio.

Here's Allison Kilkenny...

Deborah Brenner is the author of Women of the Vine and proprietor of Women of the Vine Cellars. While writing the book, Deborah and winemaker, Signe Zoller met and teamed up in 2006 to launch a first-of-its-kind wine company; bottled and produced by Women of the Vine Cellars.

From 2002-2005, Deborah ran her own marketing and public relations firm, SmallFishBigPond, and worked with such companies as Cinecitta Studios of Rome, Quantel, NBC and CNBC. Prior to that, Ms. Brenner spent over 16 years working in the film, television and the post production industries and was involved in four technology startups.

Here's Deborah...

Miki Fujiwara, aka Urban Envy, is a self-employed visual artist/community activist based in New York City.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Miki is known to be one of the original members of the New York Tributary Art Movement. The majority of her work, mostly paintings, has been categorized as "Cultural Surrealism," often said to be in the "tradition of Cynthia Tom and Frida Kahlo."

Urban Envy's works can be seen in local galleries of New York City.

Here's Miki...

Bambi Weavil is founder and CEO of Out Impact, Inc and publisher of its online magazine Out Impact. Based in Wilmington, North Carolina, Bambi spends her days and her nights working to raise money for LGBTQ issues...while also squeezing time to write about pro wrestling and her guilty pleasure, "American Idol."

Here's Bambi...

Joan with Javonn, one of the many babies she helped deliver

Joan Bryson became a midwife in 1991, and between her nursing experience and midwifery practice, she's assisted in more than 1,000 births.

At her private practice in Brooklyn, NY--Community Midwifery--she provides midwifery and health care for women in their teens to post menopausal years, including regular gyn exams, breast exams, primary care screening, preconception counseling, STD screening and prevention and family planning.

She is also an active member of New York City midwives. Here's Joan...

Yvette Bello joined Latino Community Services (LCS) in June 2005 and is currently serving as the Executive Director. Based in Hartford, Conn., LCS works to reduce the further spread of HIV/AIDS among the Latino community and other populations at risk, and improve the quality of life of individuals affected by HIV/AIDS.

Yvette also serves on the board of the Medical Interpreting Association of Connecticut, The Ryan White Latino Caucus, the Connecticut Association for Nonprofits board and the Mayor's Commission on AIDS.

Here's Yvette...

Sandy Shin is program coordinator at Breakthrough USA. Breakthrough is an international human rights organization that uses media, education and pop culture to promote values of dignity, equality and justice. It has two offices, one in NYC and one in New Delhi, India.

Sandy Shin has a Masters in Human Rights from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies and Sociology from the University of Albany. She was the Legal Advocate Project Director at the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault where she coordinated statewide trainings and provided constituents and the general public with services. Sandy has also been involved with community-driven social movements led by local activists employing anti-racism, anti-war ideologies.

Here's Sandy...

Nancy Northup is the President of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global human rights organization that uses constitutional and international law to secure women's reproductive freedom. The Center has won groundbreaking cases before federal and state courts, U.N. committees, and regional human rights bodies, such as the European Court of Human Rights. Working at the state, national, and international levels, the Center has built the legal capacity of women's rights advocates around the world, working in over 45 countries.

Nancy is an attorney with extensive experience in constitutional impact litigation, criminal law, and reproductive rights advocacy. Here's Nancy....

Katori Hall is a playwright, performer and journalist from Memphis, Tennessee. Her award-winning play, "Hoodoo Love" received its world-premiere at the Cherry Lane Theatre November 1, 2007. Her other plays include: "Remembrance," "Hurt Village," "Saturday Night/Sunday Morning," "The Mountaintop," and "Freedom Train."

She is a recipient of numerous writing awards including the 2007 Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, 2006 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting, 2006 Royal Court Theatre Residency, 2005 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Recently, she was nominated for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize and the Susan Smith Blackburn Award.

As a journalist, her work has been published in The Boston Globe, Essence, Newsweek and The Commercial Appeal.

These are just some of the highlights of Katori's career. Here's Katori...

Before coming to the Center for Genetics and Society, Emily Galpern worked for 10 years promoting community health and well-being through coalition-building, advocacy, and health education. She holds a BA in women's studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz and obtained her Master's in public health in community health education from San Francisco State University in 2004. She completed a graduate research project on women's sexual and reproductive health in southern Ecuador using a human rights framework, and conducted other research on health disparities and inequities and the impact of racial discrimination on health.

Here's Emily...

Photo by Steed Media Service

In the 1990s, Celeste Beatty traveled Europe, Central America and Africa as an exchange student to study local beer brewing customs after perfecting duplicates of American ales like Samuel Adams. She founded Harlem Brewing Company, the maker of Sugar Hill Golden Ale (delicious, I've tried) in 2000.

Harlem Brewing recently sealed a partnership with the major distributor Manhattan Beer Distributors, which supplies 35 percent of New York City’s market. The deal is helping to get Sugar Hill Golden Ale into bodegas, supermarkets and restaurants around New York City.

A native of North Carolina, Celeste gives 10 percent of her company’s income to charity, usually to jazz organizations. Here's Celeste...

From left to right: Megan Kocher and Heather Ites

Circa 1970-something, "two women decided to gather some books on women's topics and offer them for sale on the front porch of their living collective," and according to its website, Amazon Bookstore has been around ever since. It remains the oldest independent feminist bookstore in North America.

Megan Kocher and Heather Ites help run and own Amazon Bookstore Cooperative. Here's Megan and Heather...

Sister Outsider is the latest project of novelists, screenwriters, and entrepreneurs Elisha Miranda and Sofia Quintero who have been collaborating since 2000. They co-founded the nonprofit Chica Luna Productions and its project, The F-Word, that is working to train the next generation of women of color filmmakers.

Julia Carias is an actor, educator, filmmaker, and Sister Outsider's Director of Operations and Productions.
Among her list of works and activism, Julia co-wrote, produced and directed her first play in 2002, "Roots," a production by La Casa Latina, an organization dedicated to promoting Latino culture throughout the college community.

Here's Julia...

After graduating high school, Michelle Walker left NYC for the UK to spend years singing in renowned clubs like The Limelight and Ronnie Scott's. After moving to the D.C. area to study voice, she spent graduate school at American University, and continued her jazz studies privately with Madeline Eastman, Jay Clayton, Nancy Marano, Pam Bricker, Dena DeRose, Rhiannon and jazz vocalist Mark Murphy. Michelle also studied at the Amsterdam Music Conservatory in Holland and the Stanford Jazz Summer Workshop in Palo Alto, CA.

Some highlights of her work include opening on tour for jazz vocalists Mark Murphy, Rene Marie, Chris Botti, George Benson, Spyro Gyra, Terrell Stafford and opening for Wynton Marsalis. Michelle currently teaches privately and conducts workshops on musical performance and career management when she's not on stage. Here's Michelle...

Maya Nussbaum (right) with author Tayari Jones at the Girls Write Now 10th Anniversary Friendraiser on October 18. Photo taken by Nana Brew-Hammond.

Founded by Maya Nussbaum, Girls Write Now is the only East Coast nonprofit that provides all-girl mentoring and creative writing training for high school girls. Based in New York City, Girls Write Now matches young aspiring female writers with a professional female writer to serve as her mentor and writing coach.

Founder and Executive Director Maya Nussbaum reflects on the past 10 years and why girls need to write. Here's Maya...

Filmmaker Tiona. M. has worked in the educational documentary genre and pulled up her sleeves in the non-profit arena. This time, she has two documentary films that she wants to share with the world. One is on a Black women and her two daughters, and their university experience. The other, which I interviewed her on, is black./womyn.: conversations..., which should be out soon.

Here's Tiona...

Sol Mills does corporate social responsibility for a living, she works for CSCC. Originally named Cal Safety Compliance Corporation, it pioneered the concept of safety compliance inspections in the California apparel community. The company grew and changed its name to CSCC. Today CSCC provides corporate social responsibility consulting services to a variety of industries around the world, including garments and textiles, home furnishings, hard-lines, technology, cosmetics, toys, food processing, and agriculture.

Just to make sure, the following responses represent only the personal opinions of Ms. Mills and not of CSCC, the company.

Here's Sol...

Ren Jender is a writer/performer who for eight and a half years was the host and founder of The Amazon Slam, a Boston-based all woman poetry slam that won "The Best Poll" of The Boston Phoenix from 1998-2003 and was named "Best of Boston" in Boston Magazine in 1999. Her work has appeared in Bitch Magazine, Bay Windows and Spare Change. She has been profiled in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Boston Metro, The Boston Phoenix, Curve and Teen Voices. She was the co-curator/co-producer of the Lisa King Memorial show in Boston in May of 2006.

She's currently working on a new creative and community project. Here's Ren...

Staceyann Chin is a full-time artist. Writing from her experiences as a Jamaican national and a New York City resident, Staceyann has been an “out poet and political activist� since 1998. She's performed on the stages of the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe, Off-Broadway and Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. In 1999, Staceyann took the American Amazon Slam title in Aarhus, Denmark.

Her acclaimed individual performances have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and "60 Minutes." Her poems and writings can be found in Stories Surrounding My Coming, and numerous anthologies, including Skyscrapers, Taxis and Tampons; Poetry Slam; Role Call and Cultural Studies: Critical Methodologies.

In 2000, Staceyann's first one-woman show, "Hands Afire" ran for ten weeks at the Bleecker Theater. Off-Broadway Theater welcomed her second show, "UNSPEAKABLE THINGS" in the summer of 2001 before she took it to Copenhagen for a week-long run. London, Helsinki, Sweden and Norway are in line for showings. These are just some of her accomplishments.

She is currently a host on Logo's After Ellen internet show "She Said What?" and a co-host of BETJ's "My Two Cents." She's still creating and sharing. Here's Staceyann...

Elizabeth Dahmen front; Photo by Liz Liguori

Elizabeth Dahmen is a comedian, actor and singer who's performed in countless productions in NYC over the last 10 years. She's been featured in The L Magazine, and in GO Magazine’s “100 Women We Love.� She also hosted karaoke at Meow Mix for three years before it closed down and starred in the hit lesbian short "Bar Talk " directed by Cheryl Furjanic. She starred in "Ex-Antwone" a controversial play directed by Juan Souki that had an English language world premiere at PS 122 last fall, and just recently shot a scene in Madeleine Olnek's upcoming film.

She's also Terry Tone of The Lesbian Overtones. Here's Elizabeth...

A 2002 study found that 87 percent of women in Jordan believe their husbands are justified in using physical and verbal violence against them. So the country is launching a project, under the direction of Queen Rania, to curb violence against women.

Feoshia Henderson is a former reporter for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Before the Enquirer she covered the Kentucky Legislature and Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Post and The Kentucky Gazette.

She is currently a freelance journalist and blogs about social issues on her Myspace page. Feoshia describes her blog, Femblog, and her blog identity, Femblogger, as:

“I’m a frustrated political reporter looking for people who care about themselves and the world and are looking for a place to talk about it. I blog every day and you’ll find stories here that you usually won’t hear about anywhere else. I’m working to create an e-community of people who vote, who pay attention and who have something to say to politicians. Come by MySpace anytime! If you like it, then friend me. Here you’ll read about politics, social trends, technology, free speech, mass media, women’s health, sex, gender issues, relationships and more!�

Here’s Feoshia…

Trish has written for Time Out Chicago, The Village Voice, Punk Planet and AfterEllen.com. She is one of the Hook-up bloggers on Ourchart.com, one of the curators for Queer Fest Midwest, and was the co-founder and publisher of the now defunct, chillmag.com.

Trish took time out this week to report back on Queer Fest Midwest in Chicago last weekend and her views on mainstream queer media. Here's Trish...

Women Don't Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation—and Positive Strategies for Change, by Sara Laschever and Linda Babcock was first published in 2003 and recently released in paperback February 2007. I know some women who think this book has truly changed their lives and their literal outlooks.

Sara Laschever, pictured above, is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the Village Voice, Vogue and other publications.

Here's Sara...

Tatiana

Tatiana Suarez Pico, Tara Lopez and Aurin Squire together make a bilingual comic strip titled, "Bodega Ave." Tatiana translates and writes, Aurin writes and Tara draws.

Their website describes "Bodega Ave." as a pop fantasy and ridiculous satire based on a bunch of pre-teens in Brooklyn."

Here's Tatiana, Tara and Aurin...

Deidra has been running her blog, Black and Missing but Not Forgotten since July 2007. She states:

"This blog is dedicated to all the missing black women in America. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr once said "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." If the media doesn't step up—who will? Let these ladies know that we did not forget about them."

Deidra made time between her two jobs and blog to answer my questions. Here's Deidra...

Wendy is the current president of BiNet USA and a software engineer. BiNet USA is the oldest national bisexual entity in the United States. "It is a network of groups, projects and individuals, encouraging dialogue and participation as a way of creating and maintaining a cohesive bisexual community and empowering individuals to feel proud of their bisexuality."

I caught up with Wendy over email. Here's Wendy...

Singer and songwriter Nicole Nelson recently returned to New York City after a long run in Boston, MA where I first saw her perform. Her voice and music are often compared to the artistry of Eva Cassidy, Donny Hathaway, Gladys Knight and Erykah Badu; and her style and poise are often compared to those of female greats well beyond her years.

I thankfully caught up with Nicole over email amidst her hectic schedule. Here's Nicole...

Mattilda, a.k.a. Matt Bernstein Sycamore, is the author of a novel, Pulling Taffy, and the editor of three nonfiction anthologies: That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation; Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving; and Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write About Their Clients. She is at it again with her latest anthology, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity.

I caught up with Mattilda over email. Here's Mattilda...

Brooklyn filmmaker Sarah Schenck’s first feature film, Slippery Slope, bills itself as “a comedy about pornography and feminism.� Those aren’t words you see together every day. All too often, the debates around the topic are polarizing and volatile.

Here, Schenck takes an antiporn feminist who’s trying to get funding so her film Porn for Dummies can go to the Cannes Film Festival, but the only way she can make ends meet is to take a job on the set of a porn flick helmed by a woman. She has to keep her job a secret from her boyfriend while also figuring out the logistics of the genre and what her own politics will let her do. “With hot button issues, humor is often the best way to start a conversation about it,� says Schenck.

The 41-year-old mother of two, who was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for producing 2004’s Virgin, starring Robin Wright Penn and Elisabeth Moss, was inspired by her own potential dip into the world of porn directing, which she ultimately chose not to pursue. While making Slippery Slope, though, Schenck herself got an education in the mock-porn business, shooting mishaps, and learning when to compromise. Her, she delves into the complexity of feminist debates about housework, babies, and smut.

by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Maribel Ortega is a fashion designer whose about to open up her first shop featuring her clothing line, LANENA, in Madrid, Spain. Right now you can get her T-shirts online.

LANENA comes from a nickname her family and friends call her—"La Nena"—meaning "Little Girl" in Spanish. Here's Maribel...

Katina Paron is the editorial and program director of the nonprofit Children's PressLine (CPL) housed in the Martin Luther King, Jr. high school in New York City. CPL teaches youth between the ages of 8 and 18 the craft of oral journalism to empower youth and educate adults on youth issues. Youth at CPL interview other youth throughout the five boroughs and across the country on various social and economic issues that affect their everyday lives, their interviews are then in turn published in adult media outlets such as The New York Daily News and Alternet.org for adults to read and learn.

When she's not getting CPL interviews published, Katina's working hard to get funding. Here's Katina...

Deborah Siegel, PhD is a writer and consultant specializing in women's issues. She is a Fellow at the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership and co-editor of the anthology Only Child. She has written about women, sex, families and popular culture and has been featured in Psychology Today, USA Today, The New York Times, Time Out New York and Ms.

Deborah took time out from her participation in the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) Conference, June 28-July 1 in St. Charles, Illinois to email the answers to my questions on her new book, Sisterhood Interrupted, From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild.

Here's Deborah...

Some old fashioned woman hate for your Wednesday.

Farida Nekzad began receiving menacing calls on her cell phone a half hour after arriving at the funeral of a fellow female journalist assassinated by gunmen.

"'Daughter of America! We will kill you, just like we killed her,'" she quoted the man on the phone as saying as she stood near the maimed body of Zakia Zaki, the owner of a radio station north of Kabul.

I won't go as far as the article to say that women's lives have "vastly" improved since the fall of the Taliban. The condition and lives of women in Afghanistan are deplorable, but it seems to be a new trend t